By George Washington's own words, what youths learned in
America's schools "above all" was "the religion of Jesus Christ." The American Revolution
and the Acts of the Continental Congress The seeds of separation between
America and Great Britain had been sown as early as 1765 when Great Britain
began to impose on the Colonies a number of tyrannical and, what the Colonists
called, unlawful or "Intolerable Acts." Although the Americans faithfully
sought redress from these arbitrary and often capricious policies, the response
from the Crown was frequently hard fisted. The fact that British troops had
even fired on their own citizen's in the 1770 "Boston Massacre" further
deepened the rift.

As a result, some individuals understandably began to
incite open insurrection; however, America's patriot leaders remained firmly
committed both to lawful procedure and to a peaceful resolution of their differences
with Great Britain. Some today contend that the American Revolution represented
a complete violation of basic Biblical principles. They argue from Romans that
since government is of God, then all government decrees are to be obeyed as
proceeding from God. Interestingly, it was this same theological argument which
had resulted in the "Divine Right of Kings" philosophy which reasoned that
since the King was divinely chosen by God, therefore God expected all citizens
to obey the King in all cases; anything less, they reasoned, was rebellion
against God.

The American Founding Fathers strenuously disagreed with
this theological interpretation. For example, Founding Father James Otis a
leader of the Sons of Liberty and the mentor of Samuel Adams openly struck
against the "Divine Right of Kings" theology. In a 1766 work he argued that the
only king who had any Divine right was God Himself; beyond that, God had
ordained that the power was to rest with the people: Has it government any
solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone? I think it has an everlasting
foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the Author of Nature whose laws
never vary. Government is by no means an arbitrary thing depending merely on
compact or human will for its existence.

The power of God
Almighty is the only power that can properly and strictly be called supreme and
absolute. In the order of nature immediately under Him comes the power of a
simple democracy or the power of the whole over the whole. God is the only
monarch in the universe who has a clear and indisputable right to absolute
power because He is the only one who is omniscient as well as omnipotent. The
sum of my argument is that civil government is of God, that the administrators
of it were originally the whole people.